Broken Bottles
by mindymaizee
Summary: She is a threat to SHIELD. Therefore, SHIELD must eliminate that threat. But there is more to her than the Avengers are led to believe. Takes place after the movie. OC/Avengers. Not sure on exact pairings at the moment. Rated T just in case.


They were all seated around the table. There was incessant chitchat among each of them, but nothing important was being spoken about. They were called, all six of them, to return to their home in SHIELD. There was another problem, another threat against the earth but that was all they knew.

The mighty god was looking around. The billionaire was fiddling with the Arc Reactor in his chest, tapping it in boredom. America's first superhero was rolling his eyes with each and every chink that followed the taps. The doctor was cleaning his glasses against his shirt. The archer was in deep conversation with the Russian spy, whispering quietly to the point where no one could pick up a word they were saying.

They were The Avengers. They saved the world once, they could do it again.

The director soon entered, his heavy footsteps thundering against the floor. Six pair of eyes watched his every move, while his one eye glanced over his team. His other eye, covered by an eye patch, is what one would first notice about Nick Fury. Having one eye staring at them was scary enough, they couldn't imagine two.

"You all have a new mission," he said. His booming voice broke everybody's concentration on other things. They were all pulled back into reality and they all looked both equally excited and relieved.

It has been a while since they worked together. The last time The Avengers assembled, Loki was threatening their planet in an effort to become king. Naturally, Loki was all-around stupid (as Stark would end up saying) and the defeat of the frost giant was a given.

Now, a new mission is exactly what the team needed. To be honest, the majority of them were interested in getting back into their suits and fighting for their planet. One, in particular, was not exactly thrilled at the opportunity to use his anger issues again.

"What mission?" Natasha spoke first. She was generally the first one excited to be back in the game. The anticipation in her eyes was unmistakable.

Nick Fury tossed a few files, all copies from an original file, onto the table. Each Avenger took one and opened it, studying its contents.

Fury wasn't like Tony Stark. Stark was a genius, so to speak and he enjoyed technology. His entire life was surrounded by the use of technology, ever since his father Howard had displayed a lust for it. Tony believes he is just like his father, though he would never admit it out loud.

Fury was more of a traditionalist, though nobody would think so because of his job in SHIELD. The organization uses all kinds of technological advances and displays such heavy intellect. Honestly, it wasn't exactly Fury's style but he went with it.

Opening the file, Steve was the first one to speak up. "Who is she?"

He was referring to the picture that was clipped to the small stack of papers inside. The picture was of a girl, slender in size with blonde curls just past her shoulders. Her gray eyes were easy to pick up on, as well as how happy she seemed to look in the picture. In a way, the girl reminded Steve of Peggy.

"Her name is Abigail Crane. She's a huge threat to SHIELD," Fury explained.

Every, single pair of eyes seemed to snap open wide. The shock and surprise by each and every member was something even Fury could not predict. He stared hard at his members, wishing he could read their minds for they all seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Her?" Bruce Banner asked incredulously. His voice mimicked the others' facial expressions, as though they were all speaking simultaneously through Bruce.

"Yes."

Fury said nothing else. The team exchanged looks with one another, minus Tony who went on to read the papers that were given in the file. He cleared his throat and all eyes ended up on him.

"I'm sorry, but why are half of these pages blacked out?" Tony questioned while flipping through them.

The other members followed suit, noticing that as well. Only key words were visible to them, such as "Girl…threat…danger…eliminate." There was no clear pattern as to where Fury was going with this, and it only made the Avengers far more curious.

"Why don't we have the whole story?" Steve asked, only to receive nods from his fellow team members.

It was quite obvious to see that Fury was getting uncomfortable, which was a rare sight. Fury was often calm and collected. But it appeared he was under pressure and Tony definitely took notice of that.

"There are some things you aren't allowed to know," Fury explained. However, it sounded as though he were choosing his words carefully.

"What's the mission?" Natasha asked.

Having the team get sidetracked over the sudden girl was not something she wanted to be held accountable for. In Natasha's mind, it didn't matter who the threat was, just as long as the threat was taken care of to a point where the threat wasn't a threat anymore.

"It's simple," Fury explained. He seemed relieved that the topic was switched back to the mission, because it was the reason he called the Avengers back together in the first place, "Eliminate the threat."

"What?"

The sounds morphed together, sounding as though it came from one person when it in fact came from all. Fury rolled his eye. He was not in the mood to play 21 Questions with everybody today.

"She cannot be any older than twenty," Bruce explained as he stared at the girl's picture once more.

Abigail Crane looked young. She looked too young to be killed. Bruce was sure the girl had her whole life stretched out before her, and just ended up making some bad decisions. He could reason with her. He was sure of it.

"Twenty-three, actually."

Fury's voice was starting to aggravate Tony. The man of iron said nothing while looking at his team members.

Natasha seemed totally fine by the fact that she would kill a young girl. Clint didn't look too thrilled, though it did look like he accepted the offer. Steve obviously did not agree with the mission. Thor appeared to be having a hard time understanding the problem. And Bruce backed out of it altogether.

"You have your mission. Eliminate the threat," Fury said. He turned on his heels and abruptly left.

The silence that hung into the air was deafening, actually. The members said nothing to each other; they just exchanged looks with one another. Who was going to kill this girl? And why did she need to be killed? On top of that, what was Fury hiding?

"So," Tony said. He leaned against the table, shutting the file and tossing it aside. "Who should do it?" His tone was clearly tight and rough. Ironman doesn't kill girls, he kills enemies. There was a difference.

"We don't know anything about her," Steve replied. He kept staring at the picture. He was unsure about what to do as well.

"Fury said we must eliminate her," Natasha spoke. She said it so freely; it was nearly shocking to most of the men at the table. (Clint didn't even look up, probably because he knows her so well and expected that kind of attitude from the female assassin.)

"Aren't you the least bit concerned about WHY?" Tony had to ask for emphasis. He was cool with killing enemies, as long as they were enemies and he knew the reason behind that.

"Fury wants us to march like army men and kill this woman without a reason," Bruce even added.

Thor was watching the site, watching his teammates bicker back and forth. He didn't quite understand what was going on, but he was curious at the Midgardian reactions over this one girl. It, for some reason, was almost tearing the team apart.

"She is a threat. If we don't kill her, she'll kill us," Natasha spat for defense.

The billionaire rolled his eyes. "I think it's safe to say that by now, nobody can kill us."

Clint slammed a fist against the table. He couldn't take it, the fighting among his team. And it was over a girl none of them knew. He stood up, a sense of determination in his eyes. He left the room without a word. Then again, a word wasn't needed. It was obvious. Hawkeye was going to be the one to 'eliminate the threat'. Tony just hoped the archer doesn't feel guilty about it afterwards.


End file.
